Language learning app Duolingo deletes LGBT+ references in Russia

Russia has classed the ‘LGBT movement’ as extremist

Position alternate healthy apps next to social media apps on your phone (Getty)

Language learning app Duolingo has removed references in Russia to what Moscow calls “non-traditional sexual relations”.

The app deleted the language after being warned by Russia’s communications regulator about publishing LGBT+ content it classed as “extremism”.

Russia last year widened restrictions on the promotion of what it calls LGBT+ propaganda amid a broader crackdown on LGBT+ rights, which President Vladimir Putin has sought to portray as evidence of moral decay in Western countries.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator, had written to Duolingo, warning it against ‘publishing material promoting non-traditional sexual relations and LGBT+ propaganda.’

Duolingo’s media and investor relations teams did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“The company Duolingo sent Roskomnadzor a letter in response, in which it confirmed that it had deleted materials promoting non-traditional sexual relations from its training app,” Russian news agencies quoted Roskomnadzor as saying on Tuesday.

Russia has designated the “LGBT movement” as extremist and those supporting it as terrorists, paving the way for serious criminal cases against LGBT+ people and their advocates.

Gay rights activists hold a banner reading ‘Homophobia - the religion of bullies’ during their action in protest at homophobia, on Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on July 14, 2013 (Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The country’s top court ruled that LGBT+ activists should be designated as “extremists” and issued a ban against such work in November last year. This effectively outlaws LGBT+ activism across the country.

The ruling was the latest in more than a decade of restrictions on LBGT+ rights under Vladimir Putin, who has put what he calls “traditional family values” at the centre of his appeal to the Russian public.

The November hearing took place behind closed doors and with no defendant. Multiple rights activists have pointed out that the lawsuit targeted the “international civic LGBT+ movement”, which is not an entity but rather a broad and vague definition that would allow Russian authorities to crack down on any individuals or groups deemed to be part of the “movement”.

In a statement announcing a lawsuit filed to the court, Russia’s justice ministry argued that authorities had identified “signs and manifestations of an extremist nature” by an LGBT+ “movement” operating in Russia, including “incitement of social and religious discord”, although it offered no details or evidence. In its ruling, the court declared the “movement” to be extremist and banned it in Russia.

Russian courts have issued fines for those that violate its “LGBT propaganda” law, including online film distributors and executives.